Best of British Indies

Britain Turns To Crime

Take a trip through British crime, with eight great independent crime writers. From cosy to gritty, country house to council estate and Victorian Bradford to near-future London, there’s something for everyone.

A Novel Way To Die – Lynda Wilcox

When Verity Long’s boss invites her to a crime writers’ workshop, she expects a relaxing stay at a country house hotel.

But there’s a real body in the library, and plenty of writers around, all capable of plotting the perfect murder. Verity must use all her sleuthing skills to solve the case before the police step in and arrest the wrong person.

The Bite Café – J.A.Armitage

Emma doesn’t know a Singapore Sling from a Long Island Iced Tea. But she volunteers to take over her sister’s bar after an accident. The Bite Café is not all it seems, and when there’s a murder right outside the bar, Emma has to solve the mystery before she loses all her customers.

Three Years Dead – A.D. Davies

Attempting to rebuild his life, Martin takes up the case of a missing male prostitute, forcing him back into the run-down estates awash with temptations he must resist if he is to find the answers he craves.

Snarl – Celina Grace

Detective Sergeant Kate Redman is back at work after a long sick leave. The stakes are high when a multiple murder scene is discovered and a violent activist is implicated in the crime. Kate and the team must put their lives on the line to expose the murderer and untangle the snarl of accusations, suspicions and motives.

The Bleak – Keith Dixon

Sam Dyke’s new client is watching her boss fall apart, and she can’t bear it.

He soon discovers that it’s not the pressures of work that are getting to her boss. It’s his colleagues, and their leader, whose personal philosophy is taking him towards a calamitous event that will destroy the lives of hundreds of people.

Dyke sets out to foil this madman. A course that endangers him, his new partner, and anyone else who gets in the way of the doomsday plan.

Solstice – Ian Pattinson

Maria wants to find her cousin, who has disappeared after being put into a children’s home run by a company called Vantage.

Tomas wants to find out who Vantage are bribing to get all their contracts.

Kay Wood has landed her first murder case- a body in the Irwell with a strange symbol carved into his chest.

Irwin Baker has been asked to help with Kay’s investigation.

It’s going to be a very long day for all of them.

Devil Gate Dawn – Tim Walker

In 2026, Britain is in chaos. Democracy has collapsed due to voter apathy. In America, President Trump has built his wall and has created Fortress USA.

Enter George, survivor of a pub bombing, who finds himself drawn into the hunt for a terrorist group. George and girlfriend Sunny join a deadly game of cat-and-mouse between police and terrorists, culminating in a stand-off at Devil Gate Dawn.

Who Killed Little Johnny Gill? – Kathryn McMaster

One foggy morning, just after Christmas, John Gill’s mother waves off her son, not knowing it will be the last time she sees him. He’s found dead early on Saturday morning, his wounds eerily similar to the murders of Jack the Ripper. Was he killed by the Ripper? Clues involving Masonic rituals point to the possibility that he was. And yet, William Barrett was the last one to see Johnny, and he isn’t saying much.

Britain Looks To The Future

Take a trip from the 19th century to the far future, with eight of the best British independent authors of speculative fiction. From Victorian zombies to intergalactic comic capers, near future wars to the human colonisation of space, there’s something for everyone.

Smiling Is Contagious Edward M. Grant
Tired of healing wounded soldiers on the borders of the British Empire, Silas Cane returns to the heartlands of Victorian England as a rural doctor. The quiet Oxfordshire village is a welcome break from the chaos of war, until a smiling madman dies of a disease never seen before.Mission Improbable Carrie Hatchett, Space Adventurer #1 J.J. Green
Carrie is a low-achieving daydreamer. After providing a good home for her butt-ugly dog and psychotic cat, her biggest challenge in life is to avoid being fired, again.
But a strange green mist sucks her beneath her kitchen sink, and an unusual clerical error leads to an offer she foolishly doesn’t refuse.

Spared: Alone Survivors of the Apocalypse, Book One Graham Toseland
No power. No internet. No phones. No clue what has happened and worst of all, no people.
The few survivors are alone, stuck in a world where everything they have come to rely on is taken away in the blink of an eye.

Sounds Of Soldiers Ian Pattinson
Five years after an egotistical US President started a bizarre guerrilla campaign targeting the Muslim citizens of Europe, which quickly escalated into a war of small confrontations all across the continent, there is finally peace.
Robert Jones reported on key events of the war, but now he’s home. Can he adapt to peace?

Impact The IMPACT Series Book 1 Matthew Eliot
They survived the impact. Will they survive the aftermath?
It’s been nine months since the meteorites hit. They brought both destruction and disease, carrying a mysterious pathogen that has killed untold millions, while turning others into Meteorwraiths — zombie-like human relics.
IMPACT is an epic dystopian tale, spanning two continents and the lives of a rich cast of characters, as they struggle to survive.

Pickers Garth Owen
Remy and his family are on the hunt for a seed bank, hidden away before climate change crashed everything. The trail has led them to a hidden bunker, and what they find inside is going to set them on a long journey, back to the community they ran away from ten years ago.

The Bottle Stopper

The Paper Duchess Book 1 Angeline Trevena
Maeve was six when they took her mother away, and left her in the care of her Uncle Lou: a drunk, a misogynist, a fraud.
For eleven years she’s lived with him in Falside’s slums, deep in the silt of the Falwere River. She bottles his miracle medicine, stocks his apothecary shop, and endures his savage temper.
But as his violence escalates, and his lies come undone, she devises a plan to escape him forever. Even if it means people have to die.

The Galapagos Incident Book 1 of the Sol System Renegades series Felix R. Savage
Tasked with evacuating the squatters on 11073 Galapagos from their doomed asteroid, Space Corps agent Elfrida Goto struggles with an uncooperative telepresence robot and an angry local liaison. It doesn’t help that she’s got a crush on her boss, the aloof and intriguing Gloria dos Santos.
But when a lethal AI fleet attacks Elfrida’s home base, her mission changes in a hurry. Now, she has just one chance to save the people of 11073 Galapagos. Fighting was never in her job description … but she’ll just have to learn. Fast.

Fade To Grey Edward M. Grant
Maintenance Bot M-3 was always proud of the smooth and reliable operation of the starships it maintained as they travelled the galaxy searching for life on unexplored worlds. It lived for the desperate struggle against the forces of chaos and decay, fighting against time to complete repairs before disaster struck.
But this job may be beyond even its capabilities.

Five years ago the United States began to self destruct. As momentum toward a nuclear civil war grew at home, US covert kill teams- and then the military- rampaged through Europe attacking imaginary enemies. The USA found itself at war with former allies. Great Britain closed its borders and stayed mostly neutral.

Robert Jones didn’t get on the train out of Paris after it was bombed. He chose to stay on the continent and make a name for himself covering the conflict with reports on his blog. He saw the first blows, witnessed nuclear explosions lighting up the Mediterranean and was present for the final acts.

Now the borders have been reopened and Robert Jones is back from the war. He has returned to Manchester to reconnect with friends and family, to investigate the changes the city has gone through and to find out what life was like away from the warzone. He’s striving for a new, peaceful life, but there are still some ghosts and secrets from his time on the continent which are ready to come back and shake it up.

A novella about what happens when a technothriller goes horribly wrong, Sounds of Soldiers is part travelogue from the future, part war story satire, and takes a look at how the civilians usually ignored by the big war fantasies cope and survive.

The Tories are in Manchester, and thousands have turned out to protest their presence.
In the midst of the peaceful protest, a small group of hired troublemakers are planning to cause trouble. They want to start a riot, to distract from the demo’s message, and usher in new laws.
Irwin has been working with an MI5 agent to track them down before they can do any damage. But now, she has been stabbed, and he is trapped in a big crowd being held on a square by Police. Just the right place to start a fight.
With the reluctant help of Kay Wood, Irwin must track down the troublemakers before it’s too late, and find out who stabbed the MI5 agent.

It’s the Summer solstice.
Maria wants to find her cousin, who has been put into a children’s home run by a company called Vantage and disappeared.
Tomas wants to help Maria, and find out who Vantage are bribing to get all their contracts whilst he’s doing it.
Kay Wood has just landed her first ever murder case- a body pulled out of the Irwell with a strange symbol carved into his chest.
Irwin Baker has been called by his old boss at MI6, asking if he can help Manchester Police investigate a murder with links to killings in Iraq.
It’s going to be a very long day for all of them.
When Maria and Tomas uncover dark secrets in Vantage’s offices, they find themselves in great danger, hunted by a killer who leaves his signature in the bodies of his victims. Can Kay and Irwin get to them before the killer does?

‘The pair steered straight for Edwards’ table. Most of the other patrons remained blissfully unaware of the sharks gliding past them. He let them come to him because the shorter, darker one had reached into his jacket and moved the lapel far enough back for a shoulder holstered gun to be visible. They came to a halt flanking his table and blocking his escape routes.

“Mister Edwards,” said the taller of the pair, “it’s so good to meet you.”

“I’m sorry, you have the wrong man. My name’s not Edwards.”

“You are checked in as Tony Wedgwood, I know, but let us not pretend you are not Gerry Edwards. We have a proposition for you.” The shorter man had been tapping at the screen of a mobile phone and now he laid it on the table. On the screen was a photo of Simon and Karen. They both looked terrified, and with good reason. From the right of the screen the unmistakable barrel of a Desert Eagle pointed at them. Edwards’ vision narrowed to the phone and the image it displayed. He could just hear the tall man say, “You are going to help us steal four million Euros. Now, if you will show us to your room, we shall discuss the details.”‘

When a kidnapping in Manchester threatens to derail a MI6 operation in Paris they call in retired operative Irwin Baker, the only person close enough to help. With less than four hours until the deadline Irwin, and his Police contact Kay Wood, must rescue the family and save the deal.

Tommy Hill walked back into Manchester on the tail of a thunderstorm, promising easy money and atonement for his former sins. Joe Wilkinson doesn’t want anything to do with his former friend, but it’s not going to work out that way.

When Hill turns up dead with his throat slashed open Joe’s life gets dangerous. The Police think he’s involved in the scheme that got Hill killed- and some want revenge for Hill’s escape last time- and there are some dangerous characters who already think Joe is Hill’s bag man.

Can Joe stay out of jail and alive long enough to keep his name clean?

Books by Garth Owen

In a climate changed future, Pickers travel the badlands between towns and farms, salvaging what they can from before the collapse.

One family of Pickers is about to start a search for a prize that could change everything.

Remy and his family are on the hunt for a seed bank, hidden away before climate change crashed everything. The trail has led them to a hidden bunker, and what they find inside is going to set them on a long journey, back to the community they ran away from ten years ago.

With a grain blight ravaging crops in France, the seed bank could be the only hope of finding resistant strains and saving the country’s remaining towns from starvation. Remy, Maxine, Veronique and Tony are determined to break into the vault and liberate the seed lines. However, they are in Spain, and they will have to cross the country, dodging ravaging bands of Raiders, and get over the Pyrenees before they’re even in France. And then, there is another obstacle. Only one valley over from their destination is the community they ran away from ten years earlier. The people of The Valley would be ideal recipients for a bounty of seeds, but will they welcome Remy and his family back after all these years?

Pickers was first released as a four part serial last year. This collected edition has had sections re-written.

“There wasn’t an officer over the age of thirty-five in the squad room. There were some old-timers still in uniform, but a generation of law enforcement was in prison or retirement, and the children had taken their places.

Barker’s desk was laden with paperbacks, video discs and action figures. His understanding of his job came as much from these as any training he had received. There were rules about custody of evidence, treatment of suspects and general behaviour, but the language, customs and costumes were ripped and mashed up from popular fiction more than any local traditions.”

Barker and his partner Ennis are investigating the death of a young man found shot in a long abandoned building. They have no witnesses, no identification and few leads. Until a DNA test brings back an exact match to another body found two months earlier in another city.

How are the bodies related? And what do they have to do with the mysterious artificial intelligences known as the Patrons and their shadowy enforcers, the Mongrels?

After the Resource wars and ecological collapse, humanity has been saved by the mysterious artificial intelligences known as the Patrons. Facing open hostility and violence, the Patrons have recruited human enforcers. Part human, part machine, the Mongrels keep the peace and do their Patrons’ dirty work.

Tammy, Tatiana and Miko- enhanced humans working for a mysterious Artificial Intelligence known only as Ruby Horse- have been sent to an Eastern European forest to shut down a secret lab which has started offering combat robots to the highest bidder.

“General Ordnance Division, shortened to GOD, had been the prefix attached to the model names of the original series of military robots out of the old United States of America. The name, with all its overtones, had stuck and been used to describe any robotic device seen in proximity to a human in uniform. From the humblest personal load carrier all the way up to the autonomous stealth cruisers- some of which were reputed to still be patrolling the Pacific and committing acts of piracy for spares and consumables- each one was a GOD.

With the exception of ghost navies and other legends most of the gun-toting GODs had done away with one another in the resource wars which had scarred the years before the emergence of the Patrons. But there were a lot of surplus unarmed GODs knocking around, and numerous civilian versions had appeared based upon the tech. GODs, particularly the older ones, were simple by the standards of current Intelligences. They were easy to work on, though modifications tended to have unintended consequences which were usually of the dangerous kind.”

Warden’s Lodge has a blood soaked history dating back to before the Civil War. After a violent massacre it has stood empty for over twenty years. The locals keep their doors locked and are never far from a gun, fearing what they think lives in the lodge.

When eight teenagers turn up, determined to have a party in the lodge despite the warnings, blood can’t be far away.